I am thankful my son became financially independent with a good career. He is very frugal in his spending and we enjoy covering things during family vacations. To foster independence we have limited financial support, however, we are making one big exception: housing costs are “through the roof” in most cities. We had a subdivision investment project with my siblings. I signed over our share of this to my son. I thought participating in the real estate project would be educational and over several years will generate a moderate size house down payment. He is not obligated to use this as a house payment, but the timing should be about right for that and he can decide.
I like the Vanguard Select Advisory Service: this requires $500,000 minimum in total investments with an assigned chartered advisor for a 0.3% annual fee. They meet with you online several times a year or when needed. I have found they can get by any glitches in the Vanguard site. The service provides a roadmap for retirement and financial planning. The economists guiding the programs seem to have good insight on economic trends, e.g international stocks were up 36% last year as they had predicted. They did well versus benchmarks and have transparent, low costs and recommend broad diversification. My only minor regret is that they don’t offer my state’s municipal bonds, though, their municipal bond funds are OK for avoiding federal taxes.
The Vanguard Capital Market forecast supports your shift: they predict higher growth in non-US developed markets than US equities.
https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/corporatesite/us/en/corp/vemo/vemo-return-forecasts.html
There is good evidence that a diversified portfolio with stocks and bonds (or other uncorrelated investments) with regular rebalancing can compensate for the swings of the stock market. If at some point the market corrects from the AI bubble, you can rebalance when stocks are low. I realize there is a several year period needed for this, i.e. set aside immediate funding needs.
The top 1% in a global scale may be >$ 1 million, however this is probably a minimum for most families in the US to have a well funded retirement and so not sure I would define this as “wealthy”. l am not not knocking the pleasures of being able to down a Guinness and enjoy what the US gives us in health care and lifestyle. A lot of us look at the disparity between the 1 percentile folks and the 2% group and feel there is inequity in our country.
Investopedia:
The minimum net worth of the top 1% of households is roughly $13.7 million.
An individual would have to earn an average of $407,500 per year to join the top 1%. A household would need an income of $591,550.
The median household income in the United States was $80,610 in 2023.
Shakespeare’s sonnet 60 somehow seems appropriate for a former enthusiastic UK student journalist: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,So do our minutes hasten to their end;Each changing place with that which goes before,In sequent toil all forwards do contend.Nativity, once in the main of light,Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d,Crooked elipses ’gainst his glory fight,And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.Time doth transfix the flourish set on youthAnd delves the parallels in beauty’s brow,Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth,And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow: And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.
Nice review—David Swensen-when alive and running Yale’s endowment—Klarman and even Buffett in their books, all describe much of their success in investing as coming from special opportunities—supporting takeovers and mergers, venture capital startups and financing bailouts. These deals all take a lot of capital and a huge investment in screening. Swensen and Buffett more or less said common investors don’t have access to these favorable deals and recommended low cost diversified investing for most investors. We still have the advantage of patience that most of the venture capital investors with their 4-5 year time-lines lack.
Comments
I am thankful my son became financially independent with a good career. He is very frugal in his spending and we enjoy covering things during family vacations. To foster independence we have limited financial support, however, we are making one big exception: housing costs are “through the roof” in most cities. We had a subdivision investment project with my siblings. I signed over our share of this to my son. I thought participating in the real estate project would be educational and over several years will generate a moderate size house down payment. He is not obligated to use this as a house payment, but the timing should be about right for that and he can decide.
Post: Helping Adult Children
Link to comment from February 8, 2026
I like the Vanguard Select Advisory Service: this requires $500,000 minimum in total investments with an assigned chartered advisor for a 0.3% annual fee. They meet with you online several times a year or when needed. I have found they can get by any glitches in the Vanguard site. The service provides a roadmap for retirement and financial planning. The economists guiding the programs seem to have good insight on economic trends, e.g international stocks were up 36% last year as they had predicted. They did well versus benchmarks and have transparent, low costs and recommend broad diversification. My only minor regret is that they don’t offer my state’s municipal bonds, though, their municipal bond funds are OK for avoiding federal taxes.
Post: Schwab or Vanguard?
Link to comment from January 12, 2026
I think “wifey” is an outdated or personal label to use—not for posts.
Post: Social Security – Why I Chose FRA
Link to comment from December 21, 2025
The Vanguard Capital Market forecast supports your shift: they predict higher growth in non-US developed markets than US equities. https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/corporatesite/us/en/corp/vemo/vemo-return-forecasts.html
Post: Becoming A “Bad Investor”
Link to comment from December 17, 2025
I sympathize, but suggest you need an active editor to monitor and add compelling content similar to Jonathon’s for HD to continue.
Post: Letter from Elaine
Link to comment from November 22, 2025
There is good evidence that a diversified portfolio with stocks and bonds (or other uncorrelated investments) with regular rebalancing can compensate for the swings of the stock market. If at some point the market corrects from the AI bubble, you can rebalance when stocks are low. I realize there is a several year period needed for this, i.e. set aside immediate funding needs.
Post: Is The Stock Market Overvalued?
Link to comment from October 18, 2025
- The top 1% in a global scale may be >$ 1 million, however this is probably a minimum for most families in the US to have a well funded retirement and so not sure I would define this as “wealthy”. l am not not knocking the pleasures of being able to down a Guinness and enjoy what the US gives us in health care and lifestyle. A lot of us look at the disparity between the 1 percentile folks and the 2% group and feel there is inequity in our country.
Investopedia:Post: The 1% Club: Our Unnoticed Wealth
Link to comment from September 26, 2025
Shakespeare’s sonnet 60 somehow seems appropriate for a former enthusiastic UK student journalist: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend. Nativity, once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d, Crooked elipses ’gainst his glory fight, And Time that gave doth now his gift confound. Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow, Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth, And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow: And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand, Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.
Post: Farewell Friends
Link to comment from September 22, 2025
Here’s a take on the dividend irrelevance theory: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/dividend-irrelevancy-theory/
Post: Dividends Part II – At least
Link to comment from August 25, 2025
Nice review—David Swensen-when alive and running Yale’s endowment—Klarman and even Buffett in their books, all describe much of their success in investing as coming from special opportunities—supporting takeovers and mergers, venture capital startups and financing bailouts. These deals all take a lot of capital and a huge investment in screening. Swensen and Buffett more or less said common investors don’t have access to these favorable deals and recommended low cost diversified investing for most investors. We still have the advantage of patience that most of the venture capital investors with their 4-5 year time-lines lack.
Post: How to Beat the Market
Link to comment from August 23, 2025